Merit scholarships

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PianoGirl04

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So does anyone know anything about schools that offer merit scholarships? Like which schools offer them and how good you have to be to get one? I have very good GPA/MCAT scores and a pretty strong application all around, but I'm still not sure what my chances are. I'm trying to lighten the financial load a bit, and I'm pretty sure I won't get much need-based aid. I do know that Washingon U in St. Louis offers up to 16 full tuition merit-based scholarships, but I don't know about many other schools.

Ideas? Suggestions? Questions? Fire away!
 
So this guy that used to live next to me got one of those 16 Wash U scholarships. His gpa was a ~3.95 and his MCAT was a 42 O (we used to make fun of his writing score all the time). I think he had two publications, if not 3 and he was definitely the primary on one of them. I'm sure his recs read "smartest human being ever..."

I actually think a lot of school offer a few specially earmarked scholarships. Though... I've only heard of Wash U too.
 
Apparently Mayo gives terrific (non merit-based I think) financial aid to its students...I guess partly because their classes are very small. I'd definitely apply if you haven't done so already, especially if your stats are good. 🙂

Also when I applied, Drexel was offering some merit-based aid...about $10,000 a year if you didn't fail anything. I assume that would still be the case for the next entering class. Not huge, but more than enough to pay a year's worth rent!
 
Originally posted by PianoGirl04


Ideas? Suggestions? Questions? Fire away!
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here's all the info i gleaned off SDN overtime on merit scholarships (different comments by different people):

stanford
case western
washington u
duke
scholarships are Mayo, Umich, Wash U, Wayne St.
Pitt
Wayne State University gives 10 full tuition merit based scholarships annually.
Mount Sinai has very good need based fin aid (grant money as well as interest free loans), as well as several merit scholarships. They made me an offer I couldn't refuse
I received full tuition scholarship offers from University of Michigan, University of Pittsburgh, and Mayo (which gives full-tuition scholarships to half of their students, and tuition is very cheap for the rest).
:harvard

1. Wash U (full tuition, ~14 offered, separate app required)
2. UPenn (full tuition, ~7 offered, no app)
1. Wash U (full tuition, ~14 offered, separate
app required)
2. UPenn (full tuition, ~7 offered, no app)
3. All UCs
4. UMich
5. Duke (full tuition, ~8 + ~7URM only,
no separate application)

I'm not sure on the exact details but the University of Iowa awards College of Medicine Scholars $10,000 per year (non-resident). It's less if you're a resident. I'm not sure if they offer any other scholarships =)

UMDNJ- New Jersey Medical School gives out a couple of full tuition 4 year scholarships- no application.
Hey there, I got something about an Olin Scholarship (for women) and an invitation to apply for DAS/DSS merit scholarships shortly after my acceptance. If you're interested, I don't think it would hurt to call and ask whether you're still under consideration for the scholarships. My application was due on Jan. 7, but as I understood from the coordinator, they send out invitations to apply through March, so it's quite possible that they're still in the process of evaluating your application. Perhaps if you show interest, it will put you over the edge!
uck! Maybe we'll be classmates!
http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~olin/fellowship/

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor has about 4-5 full 4-year tuition scholarships per class. Criteria (based on my own experience, so take it with a grain of salt) include academic merit, life experiences, and the knowledge that they will likely lose you to other top-ranked schools unless they cough up.

Three other schools with more high-profile 4-year awards are Emory (the Woodruff Fellowship, for which you and 11 other accepted applicants interview a second time for 5 awards; those not selected are promised at least 1/4 to 1/2 tuition);
Vanderbilt (the Canby Robinson Scholarship, awarded to I think 4-5 students with no separate interview process, based largely on academic qualifications); and Duke (the Nanaline H. Duke award, awarded to 8 students without separate interview; don't know the exact criteria).
 
Originally posted by peterockduke
So this guy that used to live next to me got one of those 16 Wash U scholarships. His gpa was a ~3.95 and his MCAT was a 42 O (we used to make fun of his writing score all the time). I think he had two publications, if not 3 and he was definitely the primary on one of them. I'm sure his recs read "smartest human being ever..."

I actually think a lot of school offer a few specially earmarked scholarships. Though... I've only heard of Wash U too.
Click to expand...


I guess that goes to show you how little the writing sample actually matters! (Thank god...I only got a Q.)

Thanks for the info, guys...this is incredibly helpful. I don't think I want to add any more schools to my list, but I did apply to Wash U, UPenn, Pitt, UCSD, Stanford, and Drexel. And I'll def check out the Jack Kent Cooke website.

Who was the person that said:
I received full tuition scholarship offers from University of Michigan, University of Pittsburgh, and Mayo
Click to expand...

Daaaaamn! I wanna be him/her!!!
 
Now that we're in the actual award phase, I want to bump this thread and see if anyone's gotten anything yet. I know from reading that efex101 has gotten some. Anyone else? Come now, don't be shy.
 
I think that Vandy has at least 18 scholarships and I think that some may be need based. Wash U is the school that gives out the most merit based scholarships, to the OP you should for sure quality for merit based at Wash U! U of KY also has some. If you think that you qualify I would actually call up and speak with the Dean and ask for sure, nothing wrong with that. The information is all over their web page and if you are that good why not ask? Wash U tends to lose some good applicants to other lower tiered school because they are not "as recognized" as other schools such as Yale. Good luck.
 
Efex, quick question. Did you recieve any schol. offers from UK? THeir site says they begin offering them as early as Oct/Nov...just wondered if the fact that I hadnt heard anything was an indication or if they simply hadnt moved into that phase yet. Thanks in advance.
 
Yes I did, but that you have not heard anything does not mean that they will not offer you one, just hang in there. I received offers from schools and it was a huge surprise to me believe me. I never considered what I have done and will do that huge of deal but some schools did. I promptly withdrew my application from this great school due to various factors none which had to do with the quality of the education. Actually U of KY is an awesome place. Good luck!
 
Baylor has some merit scholarships too. I was told by someone who called that they don't hand those out until after the 1st of the year. Is that right?
 
Great to hear all of this. Here's my update: I was selected to apply for one of the Wash U scholarships, but no word from other schools regarding scholarships. Unfortunately, the Wash U scholarship application requires a specific letter of recommendation and personal essay (blah). I thought I was finished with those for a while, but I guess it can't hurt if it's worth upwards of $150,000...

Efex - congrats on all your acceptances and scholarships, by the way!
 
Originally posted by NotChoCheez!
Baylor has some merit scholarships too. I was told by someone who called that they don't hand those out until after the 1st of the year. Is that right?
Click to expand...

anyone know if this is true?
 
Any idea what the odds of the WashU scholarship are, i.e how may apply for the 16(?) that they give out?
 
What about Pritzker or Northwestern? How are they in terms of financial aid and scholarships? Any one know?
 
what kind of stats do you need to get the merit based scholarships? what is needed for other scholarships? ...how good is good?
 
Wash U gets applicants with amazing stats and they have amazning EC's too. Stats such as 3.8 and up GPA and very good MCAT like 34 and up is not uncommon for Wash U, of course just that will not probably cut it. Some of these guys may be published, Peace Corps, etc...not all folks with high gpa and mcat are just studying there are many with great things in their CV...
 
Originally posted by yowhat'sup
What about Pritzker or Northwestern? How are they in terms of financial aid and scholarships? Any one know?
Click to expand...

Relatively ****ty, IMHO, compared to a few similarly ranked and expensive schools. UC, NW, and Yale seemed to be the three schools where, if you need to take out loans they have good support for that, but when it comes to tuition breaks (ala Mayo or Duke) or scholarships (ala WashU and UM) they don't play those games.

But, all this info is from interview days where I positively space out (preferably during Fin Aid)... figuring I can worry about it if I get in.
 
Originally posted by spumoni620
anyone know if this is true?
Click to expand...

Well, the quickest and best way to know when they hand out scholarships is to call up Baylor straightforward and ask. I'm a scardy-cat, so I'll let someone else have at it. While you're at it, be sure to ask how many there are!

P.S. Doesn't spumoni mean "brave gatherer of scholarship information" in Cambodian?
 
Originally posted by NotChoCheez!
Well, the quickest and best way to know when they hand out scholarships is to call up Baylor straightforward and ask. I'm a scardy-cat, so I'll let someone else have at it. While you're at it, be sure to ask how many there are!

P.S. Doesn't spumoni mean "brave gatherer of scholarship information" in Cambodian?
Click to expand...

:laugh: really? what an odd coincidence...seems like a lot of meaning for one little word. 😛

FINE then, if no-one's nice enough to help me out i'll just go to the trenches and ask myself. I MIGHT let you guys know what they tell me... 😛
 
Thanks Spumoni, what a trooper! :clap: Way to take one for the team.
 
Ill buy you a cup of ice cream from Amy's next year if you tell me spumoni 😉
 
Hey everyone. I thought you might be interested in some firsthand knowledge about some of the merit scholarships out there. I?m currently a first year at Wash U. As an applicant, I was offered full-tuition merit scholarships from Wash U (which I accepted) and from Duke, which I turned down.

Wash U offers three types of merit scholarships:

1) Olin Scholarships. These are reserved for women and there are 4 Olin Scholars in the first year class. I believe that all women accepted to Wash U are eligible to apply for the Olin Scholarship, and I think that the application process entails writing an essay, obtaining more letters of recommendation, and interviewing before the scholarship committee.

2) There are also several scholarships for underrepresented minorities. Sorry, but I don?t know how many there are and whether there?s a separate application process for them.

3) Distinguished Student/Alumni Scholarships (DSS/DAS). These bear no gender or ethnic restrictions. There are 12 DSS/DAS recipients in the first year class. As pianogirl mentioned, a subset of applicants accepted to Wash U are invited to apply for the DSS/DAS (I?m not sure how many). The application process entails writing an essay (essentially answering the question ?Why do you want to attend Wash U and how will it enhance your educational/career goals??) and getting another letter of recommendation (it can be from a person who wrote you a letter before ? they just need to provide some new information about you). In April, 20 people are chosen to interview for the DSS/DAS. You?re flown out to Wash U for a weekend in early May and are subsequently wined, dined, given the tour of the school and St. Louis, and introduced to DSS/DAS recipients from all four classes. Of course, you also have your interview with the scholarship committee. Then, the committee makes its decision and you?ll receive a call from one of the deans letting you know.

As for Duke, I was offered the Nanaline H. Duke Scholarship. There was no separate application process. One of the deans called me a few weeks after I was accepted to Duke and told me the good news. They gave me until May 15 to make my decision.

A few last things. Someone mentioned Stanford and Harvard as two schools that have merit scholarships. To the best of my knowledge, they do not offer merit scholarships (although Stanford has phenomenal need-based financial aid). Also, although I didn?t apply to the following schools, I know people who did and received merit scholarships from Baylor (full tuition), UPenn (full), and Northwestern (half).

I hope this information is useful. Please PM me if you?d like to know anything else.
 
hey NFL,

do most of the schools , ike WashU, invite applicants to apply for the scholarships once they're accepted? or do they wait till later in the springs?

thanks!
 
Hey medhopeful08,

Sorry I forgot to mention that. Here's my timeline:

I interviewed at Wash U in the first week of November and was accepted during the first week of December (it was my first acceptance!).
The invitation to apply for the DSS/DAS came a few days after I was accepted.
The deadline to complete my application was early January. Since Wash U accepts people on a rolling basis, they have rolling deadlines (one month apart) to complete the scholarship application. Therefore someone accepted in January has until February to complete the application, and so on.
In mid-April, I received a call from one of the deans with the interview invitation.

Since Duke doesn't have rolling admissions (they notify everyone at once, I believe it was in March), they don't notify people about the Nanaline H. Duke Scholarship until the spring.
 
It's nice to know that if you don't hear right away, you're not out of the scholarship game...at least not for WashU. Hmmm.... I wonder if spumoni dug up any info??
 
dear notchocheez and gleevec:

currently both your petitions to receive my classified information regarding baylor scholarships are being carefully reviewed by myself to determine whether you can be let "into the loop" as it were. several factors will play into my decision, including (but not limited to) 1) offers of food, especially sweet foods with creamy textures (note: chocolate has in the past proved quite favorable in this regard) 2) wittiness and originality of request (some prior successful examples include quoting foreign languages, notably cambodian) and 3) other enigmatic factors that just boil down to whether I like you or not. 😛 Expect to hear from me at an undisclosed time in the near-to-distant future.

Best wishes,

Spumoni 😛


fine, fine, so i haven't called them yet. i'll do it tomorrow, okay??
 
Ode to Spumoni,
Whose beauty exceeds all
She shall be the bringer of scholarship happiness
If she'd only call.

Shall I offer food items
To win your heart with ease?
Alas, I fear all I have to give
Is a bowl of nacho cheese.
 
Come on, Spumoni. I even embarrassed myself with a poem for you!
 
i could get used to this treatment, you know! i'm thinking about stretching it out a little....😀

okay, so today i didn't get through to anyone helpful. i'll try again tomorrow and letcha know, k?

p.s. plus, i've got to think long and hard about nacho cheese. it's not really the "sweet creamy texture" I was going for here...it's a plus for diversity and being underrepresented on my list of favorite foodstuffs, but just not up there with the cream of the cream. we shall see--patience is a virtue in this game, my friend!
 
Smooth and creamy, huh?

Symphony Pie

1 graham cracker crust
1 king sized Symphony bar
1 tub cool whip

Melt the candy on the stove at low heat. Pour chocolate into a bowl with the cool whip and mix. Pour mixture into the pie crust and refrigerate until you are ready to serve.

I have given you the knowledge to make your creamy wishes come true. Now let my scholarship dreams come true!
 
so i got info on baylor. sadly, it's nothing much. but basically i talked to some really helpful ppl in the finaid office. they said need-based offers come after jan 1. but as for merit based offers, they can come (and i quote) "any time from after you're accepted to the week before classes start". apparently as soon as you've been accepted your file is forwarded to another office (financial aid doesn't handle merit-based scholarships) and they decide from there. soo....sorry, it's not exactly anything definite but it just means...more waiting...


🙂
 
Well at least no one we know has gotten one, so there's still hope for the rest of us!! I would imagine that they'd hold off on most scholarships until they've interviewed everyone they want to. Good work Spumoni! (Or, since we're on such a close, first name basis, I'll just call you Spoom.)
 
yay!!!

i was offered a full scholarship to umich!! :clap:

thought that some of you might want to know that they've started handing those out.

now if only it weren't in dern michigan. 😉
 
Originally posted by kokonut
yay!!!

i was offered a full scholarship to umich!! :clap:

thought that some of you might want to know that they've started handing those out.

now if only it weren't in dern michigan. 😉
Click to expand...

me too! i got it this afternoon via e-mail from dan remick. the dean's scholarship for 4 years' tuition...i am totally stunned and amazed...i really hope they didn't send it out to the wrong person. :laugh: (hey kokonut, did yours have a name on the email?? i'm serious!! i'm scared to call them and confirm...)

well, time to go celebrate...never thought this would happen in my wildest dreams!!!! 😀
 
damn some hella badass people are on this site...
 
spumoni and summervacation-
Congrats on the scholarships, thats incredible!!!
Just a quick question, have you both submitted your financial aid info? I was just wondering if they only issue merit scholarships after reviewing that stuff...
Thanks and congrats again.
 
rickvaughn: i didn't apply for the scholarship...haven't filled out any finaid forms. they just contacted me via email. hope that helps?
 
Congrats, you fabulous scholarship types!!

But, um, Spumoni, you're supposed to come to Baylor. ::tear::
 
Originally posted by PianoGirl04
(Thank god...I only got a Q.)
Click to expand...

I wasn't aware that a Q was such a bad score.
 
Originally posted by HollyJ
Congrats, you fabulous scholarship types!!

But, um, Spumoni, you're supposed to come to Baylor. ::tear::
Click to expand...

Ah, and she will...as soon as Baylor gives her a scholarship.
 
Originally posted by snowbear
I wasn't aware that a Q was such a bad score.
Click to expand...

Well, according to THx, Q is 75.4-89.5th percentile. Not horrible, but not exactly scholarship material. That's why I'm glad the writing sample isn't worth much.

Congrats on all the scholarships, everyone! I was invited to apply for WashU's scholarships, but nothing from my other schools so far. It would be really nice to get a scholarship without having to go through a separate application process (I thought I was done with LORs for a while!). But I'm not complaining...
 
😱 😱 Full scholarship to a top 10 school?!? You guys rock! Congrats! :clap:

TF
 
Originally posted by HollyJ
Congrats, you fabulous scholarship types!!

But, um, Spumoni, you're supposed to come to Baylor. ::tear::
Click to expand...

🙂 well, at this point i am *really* hoping for an amazing stroke of luck...i.e. something similar at baylor. my premed advisor tells me it's not unfeasible since the two are similarly ranked...One merit scholarship (especially at such an awesome school as michigan) was just completely beyond my wildest expectations, but a merit scholarship at baylor would be...heaven. 😀

thanks guys for your congrats! i'm sure more are coming round to this group of super-smart sdners. 🙂
 
just wanted to say congrats as well to you folks...wow..super impressive.
 
congrats to everyone. full scholarship to med school, u guys r living the stuff of dreams (well, at least my dreams)

anyway, the private schools i've interviewed at or been accepted to do offer merit scholarships, but i was just wondering about state schools. specificaly the SUNY's. i know they "recruit" certain applicants. but does that mean they give out scholarships?
 
So, anyhow, yesterday I got a letter from Wash U inviting me to apply for one of their merit scholarships. The problem was that I hadn't been accepted yet! This morning I called and they said that my acceptance letter is in the mail.

My question is this: How many people get these invitations? Is it something that they send out to pretty much everyone that gets accepted? If you think about it, you send in all the stuff, and from that pool they pick the finalists who fly out to interview and then from them they pick the recipients.

I am not complaining by any means!!! I just don't want to get all worked up in some false hope. Any input would be valuable. Thanks!
 
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